How to Build a Story (Now on Video!)

Dear everyone: you can stop bugging me now.

The Story Structure presentation I gave at LTUE last week was a huge hit, and people have been asking for the powerpoint file ever since. At long last, here it is! And that’s great, but thanks to my awesome friend Stephen Nelson, I’m excited to be able to offer something even better: the complete presentation on video. We’re using youtube to host it, so it’s in five pieces, but he did a really great job of putting them together and I’m really pleased with the way it turned out. He even went so far as to cut in the powerpoint slides here and there throughout the presentation, which is awesome, but I suspect you’ll want to have the video open in one window and the powerpoint open in another to really get a good look at everything.

Watching this presentation, you will learn a number of very important things:
1) I am losing a lot of hair.
2) I apparently have my hand in my pocket ALL THE TIME.
3) Story Structure is easy and awesome.
That last point is probably the more important of the three.

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This presentation gave me a good way to keep myself in check to make sure my storyline is working for me. The try/fail cycle has made me think about my story. Well, it made me think. Awesome job, can’t wait to read “I Am Not a Serial Killer”

Awesome. I’ve used your advice myself and it seems like this answers some of the biggest questions I get from friends who want to know how to outline. I ripped the mp3s from the youtube videos if you don’t mind too much; this panel serves as very useful in audio format.

I watched the presentation and took notes. Awesome stuff. It helped me figure out what was wrong with my novel. I have moved things around now, and it will be a much better book. Thank you so much for making this available. By the way, you have the best name ever.

I needed this because I am writting my own book series that is so long and by the first lesson I knew I needed to know more so I watched the rest of them and I firngered to really knock the seven steps into nothing. By your Dan Wells I went deepper in to the seven steps that you would not believe. My series will be one of the longest book series out there with 1,334 pages in each book.

Thanks for this, Dan! Awesome presentation! I really enjoy you on Writing Excuses, and I finally got a copy of your book, I Am Not a Serial Killer. I’m really looking forward to reading it. Thanks again for all the great info you give!

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About Dan Wells

Dan Wells writes in a variety of genres, from dark humor to science fiction to supernatural thriller. He has been nominated for both the Hugo and the Campbell Award, and has won two Parsec Awards for his podcast Writing Excuses.